I am a Burmese exile taking a near-permanent refuge in New York and Sydney. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And posting the articles I like from selected sites. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

The Bloody Fight Over Bangladesh’s Secularism

The head of biggest Madrassa in Bangladesh
believes non-believers must be destroyed.

Islamist militants continue to target
secular activists, journalists, and religious minorities in the South Asian
country. The debate over Islam’s role in Bangladesh has devolved into machete
attacks against secularists and religious minorities in homes and on the
streets of the overwhelmingly Muslim nation.

On Monday, Xulhaz Mannan, an editor at the country’s first LGBT
magazine, was hacked to death in his apartment at the hands of several men who
posed as couriers. One other person was killed and another injured in the
attack in Dhaka, the capital. Mannan, a leading gay-rights advocate, also
worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Although no group has yet claimed
responsibility for the attack, assailants in previous deadly assaults—including
on journalists, minorities, and secular activists—have claimed links to ISIS.
The government has, however, dismissed those links, saying ISIS does not
operate in the country of more than 150 million people, more than 90 percent of
whom are Muslim.

On Saturday, Rezaul Karim Siddique, a
university English professor, who his attackers said was an atheist, was killed
with machetes near his home. Authorities say they believe Siddique was targeted
for his cultural activities, which included editing a literary magazine and
founding a music school.

A fellow university professor told The New York Times, “He was a purely
academic person, but he was a progressive and secular person.” He is the fourth
university professor killed by Islamist militants in recent years.

On April 7, a law student who had
posted his secular views online was attacked with machetes and shot dead in
Dhaka. The 28-year-old wrote, “I have no religion,” on his Facebook page, along
with other secular-themed posts. Late last year, four so-called “atheist
bloggers,” who were on a list circulated by Islamist groups, were killed with
machetes, as well. Several other religious leaders and foreign workers have
been killed in recent months.

Bangladesh is a secular country in principle. After gaining independence
from Pakistan in 1971, following a bloody nine-month conflict, the constitution
was written to include secularism as one of its main tenets. But Lieutenant
General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, the country’s military ruler through the
1980s, approved new constitutional amendments in 1988 that declared Islam the
country’s official religion.

While the Bangladesh Supreme Court in
2010 reinstated secular protections in the constitution, Islam remains the
country’s official religion. Last month, the Court refused to hear a challenge
to that law, effectively enshrining Islam’s place in the constitution for the
near future.

One of the men who filed the petition
to remove Islam as the official religion of Bangladesh said the amendment to
the constitution led to more violence. “It changed the whole atmosphere of the
country,” Serajul Islam Choudhury told The New York Times. “It gives a kind of
impunity to those who act in the name of Islam. People have over the years gotten
away with a lot in the name of religion, and it has led us to last year’s
murders.”

One of the Bangladeshi writes hacked to death on Dhaka's crowded streets.

Bangladesh’s attorney general, Mahbubey
Alam, maintains there’s no connection between the amendment and increased
killings. Indeed, some in the country have blamed the increase in violence on
Bangladesh’s political environment. Islamist parties have enjoyed wide—though
not universal—support in the country ever since its birth in 1971. Last
November, Bangladesh was on high alert after it executed two leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami,
the Islamist party, who were convicted of war crimes during the war of
independence.

Then there are internal political
considerations: Critics blame supporters of the opposition Bangladesh
Nationalist Party, which has promoted Islam’s official place in government, for
the recent spate of attacks. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the
ruling Awami League party, said the opposition had created an environment that
justified attacks, including on a visiting Japanese farmer and Italian aid
worker last year.

ISIS claimed responsibility for both
incidents, and has boasted of other attacks in Bangladesh through its online
English magazine, calling it a “revival of jihad.” Still, officials in
Bangladesh have said on multiple occasions that ISIS is not operating inside
the country.

Although it may be unclear if ISIS is
present in Bangladesh, what is clear is that there have been more attacks
against religious minorities and secularists in the past several years. As the
BBC reports:

Nobody knows how many radical Islamist groups are operating in the
country, but one security source estimates there are 10-15 groups in existence.
Over the past year, the police have arrested more than 100 people, suspected of
being involved with different Islamist groups. They have also arrested around
20 people, including a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin, who were
allegedly trying to “establish contact with Islamic State.”

Political instability may not allow the
government to fully go after militants, even as attacks continue. When
Bangladeshi officials attempt to tackle religious extremists, they risk possible
violent retribution. Indeed more attacks could be on the way. Imran Sarker, a
widely known blogger who led secular protests in 2013, told the BBC his life
was threatened on Sunday. He received a phone call, he said, from someone who
said he would be killed “very soon.”